Mercy Sr. Theresa Kane was president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in 1979 [the gift to women religious that keeps on giving] when she was asked to make a welcoming address to Pope John Paul II during his first visit to the United States. In the address, Kane urged the pope to include “half of humankind” in “all the ministries of the church.” [And she got her answer. No.]

Mercy Sr. Theresa Kane spoke July 22 in Chicago during the second annual Celebration Conference on Effective Liturgy., “A Knock at Midnight: Celebrating Christ in Urgent Times.” The title of her talk, presented on the Feast of St. Mary of Magdala, was “Woman, Why Are You Weeping?” [Can you hear the whine already?]

Sr. Kane is internationally known for her 1979 welcome to Pope John Paul II during his first visit to the United States with an appeal for the inclusion of women in all ministries in the church and her subsequent public support over the years for the ordination of women.

She began her talk with a brief history of the current biblical scholarship to recover the figure of Mary of Magdala from layers of distortion in order to recognize her role as a significant leader in the early church. [I bet that was a hoot!] Sr. Kane praised the organization Future Church, founded in Cleveland in 1997, for its work in assessing the projected impact of the priest shortage and promoting creative approaches[I suggest big puppets.] to meeting the church’s need for liturgical and pastoral leaders.

Sr. Kane reminded her audience that Mary of Magdala is mentioned prominently in all four Gospels as a companion and disciple of Jesus, one of a group of women who accompanied and supported him in his ministry, were present at his death and burial and the first witnesses to his resurrection. Mary’s status as “the apostle to the apostles” was celebrated in the early church and is still preserved in the Eastern church. But by the fourth century in the West, as part of an official suppression of female leadership, Mary of Magdala was represented in sermons and iconography though a conflation of scriptural passages that identified her primarily as a prostitute and public sinner.

In the second half of her talk, Sr. Kane spoke of the current situation of women in the church and the inspiration to be found in examining the witness of St. Mary of Magdala. An edited version of her remarks follows [to which I may add some of my own observations in the usual way] :

Woman, why are you weeping?

“Let us place ourselves for a moment in the garden where Mary was. This is a woman who has just experienced the torture and most brutal form of death of a very close friend, [Notice how she diminishes the LORD, reducing Him to "friend" status. Modernists always reduce the supernatural to the merely natural.] a death that was indeed an execution, capital punishment, [It was, Sister, deicide.] with very few supporters. The disappearance of people after his death and burial was more out of fear that they would be captured and arrested and perhaps tortured.

“But we get the image of Mary of Magdala as someone who was a close, intimate friend, a companion, [I wonder what her implication is here.] certainly a benefactor[? Evidence? For any of that?] to Jesus, and a disciple. So each of us here, we also weep openly or we weep interiorly at the death of loved one, whether that death be from what we call natural causes or much more traumatic and sudden. But we need to enter into that garden scene, feel the depth of grief, the anguish and pain at so horrible a death, and we know the relationship that Mary had to Jesus, [Essentially, there is no evidence to back up what she is saying. Instead, she is lowering this whole discourse to the level of mere sentimentality.] certainly a close, intimate friend and companion. And at his death, we can conclude [ROFL! But get this next line…] that she probably had a conviction that a grave injustice had been done. [D’ya think?] When one has a clear vision and insight about injustice, one weeps not only with anguish but from anger, with rage. Rage comes from courage, and at any injustice, [And now we get to her theme…]all of us should be filled with rage. [This actually would be a more apt title for this talk. This is what women such as Kane are all about, perpetuating anger based not so much on any solid and dependable evidence – certainly not on what the Church teaches as a starting point – but personal sentiment, personal rereading of texts, personal desires. It’s all about her and her feelings and – damn it – she’s angry and wants everyone to as angry as she is. Misery loves company. So, she’ll put on her smile for her talks, but inside something else is going on. Ridi del duol, che t’avvelena il cor!]

[Let’s wallow in the theme of anger for a while….] “The scriptures have said continually, ‘God is slow to anger.’ God is not without anger. Why does God have a sense of anger? Because of injustice. Why do we have a sense of anger? Because of injustice. [RRARRR. I just had the image of the scene in the Monty Python movie where the women have false beards so they can be fully participate as equals in the ministry of stoning.] So such an emotion is core to righting the wrong, core to bringing about justice. [Emotion, not reason or facts.] So I feel that her weeping in the garden is certainly because of a great a loss, [loss of a… what? A friend?] but also because she was facing of a grave injustice. [Okay…. she was really angry too. Angry at the Apostles! Those meanies.]

“And then the question, what do we do about that? [RRARRR!]

“Let me speak now of the women of our Catholic community today. Why do we weep?[sniff] Without the full incorporation of women into leadership, discipleship and all church ministries — which was the vision of the church council — without full incorporation into and participation at the liturgy, [BUZZ WORD ALERT…] we do not experience community as women at liturgy, [LOL!] and we do not experience life-giving worship. Our presence at liturgy has become and continues to be a source of anguish, sadness, even emptiness. [The Anglican Church is ready! Go to them! They are waiting to heal your brokenness, dry the tears of the womany community of weeping…ness.] We continue in severe tension over the basic language to describe humanity, and this has gone on for decades, the sexist language that we refer to as exclusive language The continued use of terms like ‘man,’ ‘his,’ and ‘mankind’ denies our very presence. [It’s ineffable, sister.] It certainly doesn’t give recognition and respect; and we are surely invisible. [If only.] The anguish, the distress, the absence of a sense of worship in community has gotten much more severe.

“In 1978, Pope John Paul I said publicly, and I have never forgotten this and continue to proclaim it. ‘We need to call God mother as well as father.’ It was a powerful statement. I can still remember him being quoted. Actually I saw him on television at the end of a conference he was having. Because until we do that, our language of God is exclusive, patriarchal, [Wait for it!]militaristic. [Was that a collective groan I heard from the readers?]

“And one of the severe tensions we have in the church is between the vision we have of community and governance that is monarchical. [RRARR! But wait for this next shocker…]I have been with bishops who say, ‘We are not a democracy.’[Can you imagine such a thing?] And the question to the bishop is then, what form of governance are we? And do we not respect cooperation and participation and inclusion? We talk of community but we still have the governance of a monarchy. [With neither a full grasp of history nor clear reason as her strong points, she seems to think that monarchy excludes cooperation and participation and inclusion.]

“So the language about God is a source great distress to a growing number of women. Catholic women weep because male catholic leaders, many of them bishops and pastors, are culturally ignorant and culturally impotent[LOL!] regarding the presence, the potential, the human aspirations of women to be adult, mutual co-responsible collaborators. A wonderful word. ‘collaborate.’ It means we co-labor. I am mutually equal with you. [There should be some canonical penalty, some gravior delictum, for what she does to the English language.]

“When I was president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, we were called to Rome and been having meetings with the Vatican year after year after year, since before 1970. If anyone wants to know why this (current) investigation is happening, they have not been listening for 35 years. [I bet that was a laugh line, too.] We have done it repeatedly. So much so that we say, why should we do it again? But, good women that we are, women religious, we go back again. A very difficult issue.

‘As Sr. Mary Collins said, she would love to have a conversation with the bishop who told her they worshiped different Gods. [There, folks, it is. These women believe in a different religion.] I find myself saying, there are so few of them I could have ever had a conversation with. Even if there was a conversation, there isn’t the mutuality, there isn’t the respect, there isn’t the sense that indeed we are radically equal. [You see… she has relational wisdom. She understands.]

‘When we finished our meeting in Rome, I said to one of the sisters, find out what they thought about us being there, what they thought about the meeting, and let me know when you come home. Very faithfully, she came home and said, ‘Theresa, they’re saying over there that you sisters came over here as if you were equal.’ I said, ‘That’s a compliment. Please tell them we are equal!’ [She is using the word "equal" a lot. And she is using it in the context of things that happened in Rome. Italian "uguali" isn’t the same in its impact. I can hear it: "come fossero uguali"… as if they were the same" as men. This sort of thing happens all the time in a language. A non speak of English will get the nuance slightly wrong and the American hears something that wasn’t intended. What we have here is a failure to communicate. There is equality. There is not equivalence. Men and women are equal but not the same. Equal in dignity, but different in many other aspects. The differences, which God must have wanted, mean something. One of the things they mean is that women can never be ordained. Women are equal in dignity, but not equivalent in roles in the Church. So, not only is she spinning some idiot tale about Mary Magdalen, she is spinning a totally false reconstruction of something told third hand and filtered through a different language.]

“That’s the mindset. How do we have a conversation about that? We need to weep. [The… just… get on with it. Tramuta in lazzi lo spasmo ed il pianto / in una smorfia il singhiozzo e ‘l dolor, Ah!] There is a sense of ignorance about the human aspirations of women to be adult, mutual collaborators.

“Women of the Catholic community. Why are we weeping today? We are in crisis. [Things not going your way these days?] There are a number of women who have already moved out of traditional Sunday worship. They are still finding where they want to go. [Like sheep, without a male shepherd.] We have a number of women who have begun very courageous, strong alternative liturgies, [cf. puppet liturgy photo, above. But get this… ] which we believe are valid, mystic, pastoral, spiritual — all the qualities that are needed for the human soul. [Except for the whole part about risking going to hell.]

“We have many who are moving to other protestant traditions. [The Anglican Church embraces you, Sister, in your angerrrrrr! Feel the anger. Feel the power of the dark side of the Force.]We also have a growing number of women who are doing to feminist liturgies, taking turns presiding, co-presiding, perfectly comfortable with it. [Yahhhhhh riiiight…. perfectly comfortable. I wonder how they decide which of them is going to "preside". Imagine that scenario. Does she have more right to preside since she was head of the LCWR?If the actual head of the LCWR comes along, can she only co-preside? Who get’s to preside? Can the sister who has fewer articles in NCR be chosen to embody their embodied…ness?] I think it’s a conscience call. Maybe it is the beginning of a new church. Maybe this is how we have to look at a Pentecost. I think we need to be willing address it. To continue in an exclusively male priesthood is in my judgment both a form and expression of idolatry. [And that, friends, strike me as a clear example of both heresy and blasphemy. Perhaps Sister’s superior needs to have a chat with her after getting a note from the CDF.]

“Why is it we cannot have a woman, why is it in our congregations, or you go into your parish church and 80 to 90 percent of those present are women, and no woman can be up there presiding at Eucharist. If the priest doesn’t show up, we have a wonderful Communion service, [Note the reasoning: Communion service is "wonderful" because a woman can do it. It is not Mass, which requires a man. There is no reference to the LORD.] but you can’t even give a homily because that isn’t allowed. [If this is an example,….]

“One story. A group of sisters in the Midwest were having their community assembly. Out of courtesy, they invited the bishop. [They hated him, but they invited him.] We generally do not invite the bishop because we are such good friends and want to celebrate, but unfortunately – and I feel very sad about this — we do it because it is expected and out of courtesy. The bishop wrote back and said, it must be in a parish church and not at the motherhouse, you must have altar boys come in to assist me, and no sister may carry the cross at the beginning of the procession. With real regrets, [after passing around those fake beards] they met as a group, they really prayed about it and decided not to have liturgy. [Because that is their decision.] They didn’t want to disinvite the bishop, so they said that their plans had changed. They should have said, we are disinviting you, because so many of us have experienced being disinvited. When anything is a little bit not quite right, we get disinvited. [You know. I agree with this. So, in that spirit. Sister! I disinvite you from the Catholic Church! The Anglicans, on the other hand, are standing their with tissues to dry your tears. Go! Sister. Fly! Be Free to explore your other-invitedness.]

“But the real tragedy is that a magnificent opportunity is lost for a bishop to gather with a group of women to worship together.

[And whine begins to soar….]

“So women of the 21st century have done what we have done down through the ages. We weep. [A lot.] But we have also done other things. The material from FutureChurch shows that we can do something about this. We are creating new liturgies, a new space for ourselves[Cue gathering song musicness: " Isn’t it rich, isn’t it queer. / Losing my timing this late in my career. / And where are the clowns. / Quick send in the clowns / Don’t bother, they’re here."]

“As a Catholic woman, I continue to hope. Why? At gatherings such as this for these three days, [three … whole… days…] I hear so many women and women who are so open and want to make this a new church. So I go home having been inspired. I don’t really have a need to run back to traditional worship. [Remember that this is a matter of perspective. For her, you could have just about any wacko thing take place, but if there is a male priest, it is "traditional". See how language shifts depending on the context? But remember: they are open! They are sooooo open. Would they be open to a man presiding at their non-traditional self-expression liturgies? I have a learnéd dubitation about that.] There are many organizations that are very much alive, spiritual and Vatican II: Call to Action, Women’s Ordination Conference, Future Church., [AND…] the congregations of women religious ourselves. [That, friends, may suggest a reason for the Apostolic Visitation. Am I reading too much into it?] In many ways we are a counter organization within an organization.

“I’ve had women say to me, ‘How do you put up with those bishops?’

“I say, ‘To be perfectly honest, I really have very little to do with them. How do you put up with your husband?’ [HAR HAR HAR!]

“Women still me stories that are shocking. ‘I can’t drive when he is in the car. He still pays all the bills, and I have to get some money from him.’ This goes on on a regular basis.

“But basically I believe that the congregations of women religious have much more equality and I think that the renewal that took place in our communities brought about that equality. [Minor detail: You are all old now and there are no new vocations.]We worked hard at this for many years. [And look at all the wonderful empty convents you have made.] I think that alternative communities are worshipping and are also ecumenical, which is a major breakthrough.

“And finally I get hope from the words of scripture. In the fullness of time God’s purpose will be revealed. [It sure will. In the meantime, the last sister left needs to switch off the light and lock the door behind her.] The question is, when will the renewal come? In the fullness of time. It may be tomorrow. Maybe next week. But it’s God’s time, not my time. In the fullness of time. I also have the deep conviction that nothing is impossible with God. [So STAY ANGRY.] People will say to me, ‘You can’t do that, it’s not possible.’ With God, all things are possible. And those are the things that give me great hope.”

I can hear the opening song for their made up liturgies, as they vest for … whatever you call it:

Vesti la giubba, …. e la faccia infarina.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky271W94VHA]

Finally, I think it would annoy Sister and the editor of NCR were you to follow me on Twitter or buy me a cup of coffee. Just the thought of it….UPDATE 1935 GMT:

I am delighted to report that a few people have sent donations through the coffee cup icon! Let the annoying begin!

UPDATE 11 Aug 1342 GMT:

I am even more delighted to be able to report that even more readers have sent liberal-annoying donations using the coffee cup icon below or the button on the side bar!

I just CANNOT understand these women!! They qualify for the the succinct verdict an internal auditor pronounced on completion of an investigation some years ago of a male accountant – “he’s so stupid he doesn’t even know he’s stupid!”. Change the pronoun…..

Two year children throwing tantrums are more mature than these silly women.

This lady is a nut! I am amazed she has not been removed from her position. This kind of stuff only reinforces the SSPX and their members. I know if reinforces why I only go to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass in a traditional parish. I am insulated from this nuttyness and it is just shocking that these people call themselves Catholic.

I am a child of the 70s. Nuns like these catechized me…and as soon as I was 17, I was outta there! It took Benedictine monks, three years later, to get me to see the real face of the Church.

These women have nothing to offer but themselves, and that’s simply not enough! In Boston, seriously, our Confirmation classes focused on JFK, RFK, and MLK….the trinity of secular saints!! What spiritual poverty!

Ah but Canio is a tragic figure — a man with a broken heart, poisoned by grief, who stoically plays his comic role. The giubba represents his public persona.

But Kane is a farcical figure – a clown who feigns a tragic fate. The poison in her heart prevents her from fulfilling her proper role as a nun. She doesn’t have to put on a costume; her costume is the non-religious attire she wears in public.

I do feel a modicum of sympathy for her plight. Her patron saint, Mary Daly, is dead and this senescent bunch of her caterwauling devotees will soon be gone too. Vincerem’, vincerem’!

You say (and I quote), “Men and women are equal but not the same. Equal in dignity, but different in many other aspects. The differences, which God must have wanted, mean something. One of the things they mean is that women can never be ordained. Women are equal in dignity, but not equivalent in roles in the Church.”

That really is the crux of all of this isn’t it? Those who are in support of a decision that could not be any clearer, miss the point of what true equality is. Equivalence, in my humble opinion, is subject to equality and not nearly as important. Women are truly equal to men, but they certainly are not equivalent AND VICE VERSA!!! Case-in-point (and oft used), as a man, I cannot be a mother. I cannot bear children and I cannot nurture a child the same way a woman can. That doesn’t make me any less equal, but it does have a factor regarding equivalence. My potential role as father is not equivalent to a woman’s role as mother, but it is as equally important in the life of the child.

Dear Sister, if you don’t want to be Catholic, then please cut to the chase and leave. We don’t _want_ you to leave, but if you’re insistent that this is not the Church for you, then why beat around the bush?

Once Sr. Kane realizes that the 30 years she has spent beating her head against the wall without making any progress is a sign she’s headed in the wrong direction, perhaps she will be able to truly make a contribution to the Church and the faithful.

Humility. Obedience. Charity. Faith. The cornerstones of Christian life. I list humility first because without it we cannot truly have any of the others. Thus is the problem with Sr. Kane, Fr. McBrien, Sr. Chistler, and the rest of the NCReporter cast of malcontents (not that this publication has a lock on the malcontents by any means…): they all have the illusion they are right and the Church is wrong. Funny, I don’t recall Christ giving any of them the keys to the gates of heaven nor promising that any of them would prevail against all evil.

All of the above are obviously intelligent and articulate individuals. The problem is they have chosen to use these gifts to further their personal agendas rather than the work of the Church. In doing so they not only misuse the gifts granted to them by God, but they lead countless others astray — souls they will be held accountable for. I ask that everyone reading this pray that they will open their hearts to the Holy Spirit and work for the Church instead of against it.

I don’t know whether I can finish! It would be painful w/o your humour Father! This woman needs to get acquainted with articles such as “a” “an” and “the.” The verbage of the feminist movement is bizarre. Yes, I also agree that the modernists have great difficulty in facing the supernatural. It must be reduced to material world. The Blessed Sacrament is bread. WE are the Body of Christ, not the Eucharist. It’s always US, never HIM. They can’t face that the Kingdom of God is God, Himself, the Trinity. That’s it.

This idea that St Mary Magdelene has been reduced to a prostitute. Old meme. She says NOTHING new here, really.

Firstly, the woman cannot think a rational, unemotional, non-sentimental thought. Secondly, because of the lack of reason, she cannot write a decent speech. Thirdly, her ideology re: womenpriests colors all her judgment regarding the Sacred Scriptures. Lastly, she is a heretic and should be removed from all active ministry, sent to an enclosed convent of traditional nuns, like those in Kansas City or near Denton, helped to repent and spend the rest of her days in silence, contemplating the beauty of the hierarchy as established by Christ, HIMself.

There were three orders in my area I would have joined, one Carmelite, one Benedictine, and one active. When I visited these convents and joined the nuns in prayer, each order used a made-up Liturgy of the Hours based on inclusive language. The errors in word choice and in theology made me realize from what great height they had fallen. Needless to say, I was sadden that these nuns had thrown away their heritage and fallen into disobedience and pride.

I saw a bumper-sticker yesterday which expresses how I feel. “Angry? Need a Weapon? Grab the Rosary.”

Fr. Z, another home-run, knocked outta da ballpark!
I have watched, over the past thirty years, the decline of apostolic women religious; it is so sad; the very source of their once-thriving presence, apostolates, and “building up” of the Church in this country, before VII, has become a nightmare of dissent, lack of identity, and secularization.
Sr. Theresa Kane only confirms this; the LCWR only makes things ever clearer.
Religious life is in crisis; but God is ever-greater. And the new communities and traditional communities (esp. the cloistered Poor Clares and Carmelite Nuns) are going to thrive in the years to come.

Perhaps Sister’s comment that St. Mary Magdalene was a “benefactor” of the Lord comes from Luke 8:2-3. From this text, it is not “certain” that she was but is not out of the realm of possibility. [Not “certain”, to be sure. It is a stretch to say that the description of women who “provided out of their means” applies to all the women in the list. But it is not impossible to read it that way.]

What I find strange about the whole “Church besmirching Mary Magdalene” meme, is that the traditional narrative of the apostles doesn’t really paint any of them in a terrific light, being flawed sinners all. If the Magdalene really was an Apostle, with equal sacramental dignity to St. Peter, St. Thomas and Judas Iscariot, how would saying “yeah, well, she used to be a whore before she followed Jesus and turned her life around!” have any effect on the faithful?

His Hermeneuticalness, Fr. Tim Finigan, had a wonderful idea vis a vis these convents of aging, soon to disappear religious sisters.

Some of the newer traditional orders who are flourishing with vocations should go to them and say, “Sisters, let us work out an arrangement where we take care of you in your declining years, where we fill up this convent with our younger sisters and continue to use this marvelous property in the service of Our Lord.”

As it is, one order of aging nuns which has done excellent work in Oregon for more than 150 yrs now greets candidates with this alarming monitum, something like, “We’d love to have you of course, but you must understand that you would be entering a place of death.”

“They are sooo open. Would they be open to a man presiding at their non-traditional self-expression liturgies?”

I believe we all know the answer to that one. An actual priest, an ‘alter Christus’, would be an affront to all these sad women
stand for. I’d guess that these communities have sisters that have gone for years without receiving the sacraments from the
hands of a man. And the smart money says that those women are rather envied and admired within their congregations. I
wonder if, besides simulating the Mass and Ordination, these sad women also simulate Confession?

After likening the congregations of women religious to groups like Call to Action, the Women’s Ordination Conference and
Future Church, Sr. Kane went on to utter the only comment of hers with which I can wholeheartedly agree: “In many ways, we
are a counter organization within an organization”. It is past pitiful that she sees this as something beneficial.

There was an article by feminist theologian Mary Condren in the Irish Times recently and it was pretty much the same. I have a problem with this use of the concept of equality. Surely this is an import from legal theory but outside of law it hardly applies. In fact it is easily refuted by holding a race, an exam or any kind of test – no two people will perform exactly the same – how then can we be equal? I prefer the concept of complementarity (the feminists really hate that idea) since it acknowledges and respects difference while affirming the role of everyone. I am glad too that she reports some bishops standing up for the Church as a monarchy after our Lord did call it a Kingdom and said He was a King! Great pressure is being brought on the Church to accomodate itself to the world and the inroads are made through the concepts we share with the secular world but these very concepts can be very distructive to the Church. Good post, we should pray for nuns like this – they have’nt much time left before they meet Himself.

“[W]hen will the renewal come,” Sister? It is happening now. You don’t see it because you’re too busy fighting it: head down, shoulder to the wheel.

Incidentally: Is that quote from John Paul I a fabrication or a paraphrase? A google search for it finds that her column is the only source google knows for it, but perhaps she monkeyed with the wording.

Moon1234 writes in the comments above: “This kind of stuff … reinforces why I only go to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass in a traditional parish. I am insulated from this nuttyness.” I sometimes attend EF Masses when the opportunity presents itself—this afternoon, as it happened—but typically attend an OF Mass in a normal parish. I have never seen that kind of nuttiness. I really struggle to make sense of the leap that is often made from the novus ordo as celebrated in particular instances to this kind of nuttiness. It strikes me as almost the flipside of the coin to nut fans who impute into Vatican II all the nuttiness that was done after the council in its name, and thus criticize, for instance, the new translation as retrenchment. Like Yogi Berra, the council didn’t say half the things it said. Well, here’s the parallel phenomenon on the other side: just as the council demanded all this nuttiness, say the pro-nuts, the novus ordo demands all this nuttiness, say the anti-nuts. It strikes me that both are wrong. The novus ordo is susceptible to abuse, but it can also be beautiful and reverent, and it certainly isn’t to blame for Sister McLoony and her pals.

that’s a rather old looking crowd. I wonder if a future Pope will issue a Motu Proprio granting the use of the current ICKY Mass translation for nursing home types who are tooooooooooo rigid to accept the new translation? I think that this group might benefit

OK, I don’t want to go too far afield here, but could someone explain WHY these giant puppets are so popular with these folks? Who came up with this idea in the first place? They are terrifying. Though maybe the folks who use them are doing us all a favor by causing us to run away screaming.

Women who do this upset me, “religious” or not. Who does she think she is claiming that “the women of our Catholic community today” (that would include me, no?) are weeping over not being able to be ordained priests? What nerve to claim such a thing! Why is she so obsessed over the gender of the priest? Simply because she wants it and can’t have it. It is like my 2 year old throwing a tantrum when I say she can’t have something. The audacity to suggest I should weep over such a thing simply because I have 2 X chromosomes. It is really ludicrous. Would she likewise weep for all the men who cannot give birth? God ordained certain things to be a certain way and he did not call her into discussion on how things should be set up. Her lack of humility and encouragement of others to leave my Church is what makes me weep.

I admit most priests I know seem to have a harder time understanding or relating to women, but I think that has more to do with priestly training, priestly holiness, and the more recent scandal in the church than anything. Her language demonstrates that, simply because she is a woman, even if she was a priestess, doesn’t mean she was understand or relate to me. I wouldn’t fit into her system. [You are clearly a brain-washed victim of the dominant patriarchal, hierarchical slave-owner oppressor class.]

And how dare she compare the weeping of St. Mary over the death of our Savior to her own inability to be a priest!

How sad. I actually cried a little, not because of the so-called injustice she speaks of, but because she and her whole generation have missed the truly beautiful and meaningful point of femininity within the Church. Why focus so much on Mary Magdalene in this improper way, and not more so on Mary the mother of our Lord? Why deny our nature? Why hate womanhood so much? Why sell your soul to secular radical feminism when the true value of women the Church has always championed? How very sad.

I’ll go still further afield, and observe that the “liturgical” “dancer” prancing in front of the hideous zombi puppet can’t dance.

Her back’s out of line, her balance is off (she almost tips over once), her head is rigid, her shoulders are crooked, and her arms are divorced from her back and solar plexus. Also, of course, her movements have nothing to do with either the hymn (written by an English Dissenter, btw) or the zombi (other than gesturing vaguely in its direction from time to time. Is she summoning it from the grave? I dunno.)

I’ll reiterate my earlier observation that these are smalltown incompetents who can only get a gig by taking advantage of the ignorance and gullibility of whoever’s in charge of this lunacy.

Which leads me to SimonDodd’s comment . . . .

This is not typical of any NO Mass that I’ve ever been to — our Monsignor, after biting clean through his cigar, would have blasted anybody who proposed such nonsense to the opposite end of the Greater Atlanta Metro.

Fortunately, perhaps (and in contrast) the only liturgical dancer I’ve ever seen personally at Mass — on a 1980s Holy Thursday at the Newman Center in a university town not so far from you — was so downright embarrassing (in a leotard clearly not intended for a pudgy ex-nun type), and the dance itself so horribly awful, that I would walked out for reason of artistic sensibility alone. Though that was not the principal reason I did, in fact, walk out. [I saw that video and I was really angry about it. I was going to post about it here, but… I hold the PRIEST responsible for this disaster, not the poor girls who have been lied to. I didn’t want to expose the girls – yes, that is probably the right verb – to personal vituperation for the tasteless thing they were duped into doing.]

This stuff is a potential danger to the faith of others and is deplorable. What does this person think is going to happen on the day of Judgment? Such antics scandalize Catholics who have been correctly cathechized.

The reason Pagliacco, the clown, weeps is because he has just discovered that his wife, who is also an actress in the same traveling show, is having an affair. The show that he must perform in requires him to play the part of a betrayed husband and his wife plays the part of an adulterous wife. During the play, he loses it, slips out of character and ends up stabbing his wife to death for real on stage. Not exactly on the same level as what Sr. Kane and co. are weeping about.

In regard to the “we need to call God Father as well as mother” remark, John Paul I did say something like this, though she doesn’t have the wording right (which may be important). In fact, both of his successors have also spoken of the maternal love of God.

Here’s John Paul I, at his September 10, 1978 Angelus address. He was talking about the talks then taking place at Camp David between Carter, Sadat and Begin trying to achieve peace in the Middle East.

And Premier Begin recalls that the Jewish people once passed difficult moments and addressed the Lord complaining and saying: “You have forsaken us, you have forgotten us!” “No!”—He replied through Isaiah the Prophet—”can a mother forget her own child? But even if it should happen, God will never forget his people”.
Also we who are here have the same sentiments; we are the objects of undying love on the part of God. We know: he has always his eyes open on us, even when it seems to be dark. He is our father; even more he is our mother. He does not want to hurt us, He wants only to do good to us, to all of us. If children are ill, they have additional claim to be loved by their mother. And we too, if by chance we are sick with badness, on the wrong track, have yet another claim to be loved by the Lord.

Now, Sister Kane would undoubtedly have a cow if she knew this, but the John Paul II she apparently hates had this to say in footnote 52 of his second encyclical Dives in Misericordia (Rich in Mercy). It’s very long, so I’ll let you go to it yourself. It goes a lot into the Biblical background.

This is actually just one of the many places in his writings as Pope John Paul II talked about the maternal love of God. In fact he even mentioned it in his famous recording of the Our Father.

Now Benedict XVI has done the same. I won’t go looking for the citations, and I could give several (because it’s almost dinner time) but I will just say that in the portion of Jesus of Nazareth that talks about the Our Father, he also comments on the maternal nature of God’s love, in somewhat the same way as John Paul II if I remember right, but the adds the clarification that neither in the OT or NT is “Mother” ever a TITLE for God. And in fact, neither John Paul I or John Paul II had ever made it one. John Paul I did use the word “titolo” in Italian, as you see above, but he was referring not to a title of address, but “title” in the sense of a claim or right to something. We are God’s children, so we have a claim on God’s love. (We do somewhat the same in English when we say we have the “title” to a car – we have a claim on it).

So maternal love of God, yes, “calling God mother,” not so much.

The fact that Sister Kane doesn’t know any of this makes me suspect that she hasn’t listened to a thing a Pope has had to say since 1978. I’m pretty sure the reason she likes John Paul I is that he didn’t live long enough to say anything to antagonize her – and it he probably got in just under the wire there by dying 33 days after his election. After all, she does seem awfully easy to antagonize!

I have actually started a whole series about “God as Father and Mother” on my blog, though I’ve done only the first installment so far. This has been just a preview!

DomesticaEcclesia: I admit most priests I know seem to have a harder time understanding or relating to women, but I think that has more to do with priestly training, priestly holiness, and the more recent scandal in the church than anything.

Again, exactly. In recent times, that is the direct consequence of the lavender mafia in the presbyterate and the episcopate.

Fr. Z.: You are clearly a brain-washed victim of the dominant patriarchal, hierarchical slave-owner oppressor class.

Even if there was a conversation, there isn’t the mutuality, there isn’t the respect, there isn’t the sense that indeed we are radically equal.

Translates as:

All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. George Orwell, “Animal Farm”

Sr Kane and the like are simply power-crazy. They seem have no concept that those in positions of authority – the very thing they crave -, like priests and Bishops, constantly pray for guidance and the grace to make the RIGHT decisions and to tell the TRUTH about God, in all facets, and in all seasons.

I know the story of Pagliacci, as it was the very first opera I experienced in my youth. I still think he was feeling sorry for himself. There is a great difference between grief and pathos. The fact that he stabbed his wife indicates his small spirit of vengeance…I see Sr. Kane’s so-called grief as pathetic and selfish as well.

Where does she get the idea that 50% of humanity are priests or working in church ministries? I mean, if you define ministry as including lay apostolates, and with all Christian lay work as an apostolate, you still can only have the percentage of humanity who are Catholics… unless she means to open concentration camps to force non-Catholics into Catholic ministry. Not exactly what I’d call inclusive.

Ah, now Medea, and Clytemnestra, and Yerma–I think the medium of opera, which I do love, lends itself to pathos more than Greek drama-but I am thinking your are referring to opera. Have you ever seen Maria Callas’ Medea? No pathos…

I was recently given a circa 9180s bio of Mother Teresa. I also read Ray Arroyo’s bio of Mother Angelica. These two women are quite similar and strike such a contrast to these whining feminist-dissenters.

Both Mothers were bold and assertive (if not aggressive) in pursuing their apostolates. Yet,they OBEYED and respected their bishops, even when they didn’t agree (ie, Mother Angelica wanted ad orientum at EWTN masses, bishop said no I recall). Both relied on the providence of God to meet the financial and other needs of their apostolates and were not at all shy about asking for what they needed from individuals including wealthy persons and the public officials. They gladly accepted generosity gladly given to further their apostolates.

And they were motivated by their love for and devotion to Jesus. Their good works were never separate from their faith in Jesus. They, like most holy people, prayed, adored the Blessed Sacrament, confessed their sins, & received spiritual direction.

I’d wager these 2 women have done more to further the Kingdom of God than any of these whining women who believe themselves so powerless without a miter and staff. These 2 Mothers exemplified (excuse quoting a Kennedy, but..) what RFK said about not asking “why” but asking “Why not?” Their visions and ambition directed toward furthering the gospel knew no bounds.

As Mother Teresa said, “We do it for Jesus.” Sadly, these whining women, trapped without this motivation, have declared themselves beyond Jesus.

I listened to a priest’s talk on the Internet in which he compared dissenters to “gangrenous limbs on the Body of Christ which should be amputated before they infect the whole body.” Personally I think that most of the body has been infected and just hope that somehow a cure can be found.

Oh my God, where do I start!! What a load of babbledegook from the nun who seems to think that high flying criticism of bishops and anyone else in the line of fire is fine by her. Is it any wonder that nuns are disappearing in the USA. Have they lost sight of the focus of their lives, Jesus Christ, the man God who came and gave his life on the Cross? Do they not contemplate daily the mystery of Jesus who suffered the attacks of his own, the Romans and the scorn of the crowds as he was lead to his crucifxion WITHOUT COMPLAINT, WITHOUT ATTACK ON HIS ACCUSERS?

Where is the humility, the example of this nun . Have they not looked around and outside the USA to see perhaps another world that is not focused on them, on their lives and their poor theology.

Well might we say BRING BACK M TERESA of Calcutta. I have met her many times in India and abroad and like all her met her, she NEVER MADE ANY PUBLIC CRITICISM OF BISHOPS, THE CHURCH OR ANYONE. She attacked the scoruge of abortion and the lonliness of modern western society BUT NEVER MADE ATTACKS ON BISHOPS. Many deserved to be attacked perhaps for misdeeds, but she never did. She was an example in service, humility, prayer and above all LOVE.

These modern day nuns who fail to wear any distinctive religious clothing (WHY IS THAT, FEAR), hate to live in their communities any longer, live comfortable lives and even go to hairdressers and have their own cars, just do not get it. There will be NO woman priests in the Catholic Church, ever. The Orthodox, even Buddhists and Hindus and Moslems do not have female religious leaders. So the attacks she makes are unwarranted and out of order.

And to have puppets at the Eucharist just shows how much show business has taken over with so many religious communities. They don’t know where to go or what to do.

Well, let me advise them. Start praying together. Start living out your vows of poverty and get real, get out of your comfortable houses and buildings and start begging for food and then see what it is like to be poor. Throw away those secular clothes and put on the habit of simplicity and look like women who take vows and are convinced they are meant to be different.

At the present time they are not different. They are complaining, whinging, moaning women who have lost sight of the crucified and risen Lord. Back to basics my dear and stop the rampant criticism of the Church’s leaders in public.

I am even more delighted to be able to report that more readers have sent liberal-annoying donations using the coffee cup icon at the bottom of the main entry or the button on the side bar! Every time a new donation comes in, a liberal gnashes her teeth (I am still being inclusive).

“I say, ‘To be perfectly honest, I really have very little to do with them. How do you put up with your husband?’

“Women still me stories that are shocking. ‘I can’t drive when he is in the car. He still pays all the bills, and I have to get some money from him.’ This goes on on a regular basis.

A couple of decades ago a famous journalist with a high IQ and a syndicated weekly column in the Sunday supplement wrote that she believed that the last thing men deserve is to have women take their husband’s name on being married. As much as I enjoyed the challenging puzzles, I stopped reading her column then and there and I have not read it since, having been so insulted by such a display of hatred toward men. I feel the same about “sister” Kane. Aside from the generic daily prayer I offer for God to enlighten my–and His–enemies, I have no time for this woman (er… wo-person, er… wo-per-being).

Re: the claim of St. Mary Magdalene as one of Jesus’ benefactors . . . I thought there was some legitimate evidence for this. Specifically the fact that she is called Mary *of* Magdala in the Gospels indicates that she was somewhat wealthy or from a high class – only people from more moneyed backgrounds would have been named like this back then. Thus she may have provided a good deal of material support for Christ and the others. I don’t know either way, but I’ve heard some perfectly orthodox Catholics put forth this theory.

The rest of the article is pure junk, of course. At least Sr. Kane is pretty upfront that she and her fellow travelers have little to do in practice with the bishops and “institutional” Church. I really wish both these nuns and the bishops/pope would take steps to formally disassociate from one another. Excommunicate the nuns, and the nuns ought to declare themselves as independent from Rome. Seriously everyone would be happier (at least in this life) and it would be more honest and would end the scandal that this sort of thing gives.

Wow. I’m shocked to read that she is still alive–not that I wanted her dead, but it has been 30 years since that incident where she chided the pope and then walked over to get his blessing. Poor thing. I feel sorry for her. I’ve heard of the flying nun, but now we have the weeping nun.

Late last night, I almost sent a parody of the above article, substituting Sister’s name for Mary Magdalene’s and Father McBrien’s name for Christ’s. As I am not sending it, I shall let others fill in the blanks.

‘Sister’ Kane was in my area not long ago at a CTA event-it was advertised in the bulletin of the parish where I go for Perpetual Adoration. Of course, I didn’t go-I would have been aggravated out of my skull.

Gosh, she got real old-I remember her when she confronted John Paul II in 1979.

puma19-what you said! And I like your bumper sticker suggestions, lofstrr!

The lady is pathetic, simply pathetic….the Sixties and Seventies are SOOOO OVER…get over it!

“Re: the claim of St. Mary Magdalene as one of Jesus’ benefactors . . . I thought there was some legitimate evidence for this. Specifically the fact that she is called Mary of Magdala in the Gospels indicates that she was somewhat wealthy or from a high class – only people from more moneyed backgrounds would have been named like this back then.”

AJP,
Sorry, but no. Jesus of Nazareth was not exactly monied or (earthly)high-born yet He was referred to as such even on the plaque above His head on the cross.

Several years ago, I attended a retreat at a convent. The sisters did not have a chaplain assigned to them, and a local diocesan priest offered to celebrate the Mass at the convent. They declined his offer, saying they would rather have a community communion service instead. Needless to say, several of my friends ducked as quickly as possible, and asked said priest if he could celebrate a Mass for us at his parish!

“I am even more delighted to be able to report that more readers have sent liberal-annoying donations using the coffee cup icon at the bottom of the main entry or the button on the side bar! Every time a new donation comes in, a liberal gnashes her teeth (I am still being inclusive).”
I think you got that wrong Father – such silly money pandering diminishes your standings and actually delights your liberal critics. In many ways it is also an insult to your readers intelligence – but hey this is a free country – whatever it takes.
It is rather simple: you keep ridiculing liberal Catholics and give your fans snark written in the red and they give you computer hardware and money. One can only hope that between the time it takes to monitor and critique fellow Catholics and communicate this to the fan base you can find the time for your personal prayers.

The laborer is worthy of his hire. Or do you think that electrons are free?

The NCR hasn’t taken a vow of poverty to my knowledge, and they provide a substantial forum and megaphone exclusively for dissenting (not liberal – this is not politics) Catholics. If it were not for blogs such as this, their writers’ loud and public dissent would go largely unanswered.

I find the careful dissection and response to the often flawed arguments presented by dissenters to be extremely helpful. Worth at least a cup of coffee to help keep the servers turning.

DT-a somewhat similar experience happened to two Franciscan friends of mine several years ago in downstate New York, only this took place in the context of a wake at a convent.

They told me that they went to the wake out of respect to the deceased Sister. The community didn’t want any priestly involvement in the services. In fact, my two friends were told that ‘someday we won’t need your [meaning the priests] services’.

Needless to say, my friends said, ‘We are OUTTA HERE!’ and walked out! And one of them-who has since died-was pretty ‘ticked off’ when he told me this!

I don’t know AnAmericanMother – of course you and others should contribute towards Fathers efforts
and you give eloquent and honest reason why – be assured your giving will not annoy more liberal leaning catholics-
neither should your giving been done in a mean spirit to do so.
In my view Father got a bit carried away. No big deal – we all have our moments.
Embraced our ‘enemies’ is hard for us humans – as Catholics we should at times however at least attempt to get along within our Religion.

She’s not just threatening, you know. When she talks about home churches and apostasies what she talks about is real. And we have not educated our laity well enough to avoid attrition among them too because of all this. Some of them will follow.

The schism that we’ve all been trying to postpone for 50 or more years is upon us. It’s not going to happen with a parade in Times Square or a big spread in the New York Times. Those days are past. It’s going to be attrition, misunderstanding, friendly invitations, family expectations, confusion and just plain drifting off in apathy.

Note well. 1 in 10 Americans is an ex-catholic. About half of that 10% are unchurched at any give time. Once unchurched, if they rechurch, they are far more likely to choose something other than Catholic. The other half become protestants. Approximately 1/3 of all those raised Catholic leave and many of them leave young.

Among all of those who report themselves as being Catholic are the “regular” RCs who have an average mass attendance rate of 25-30% weekly, and then there are all the people who report themselves as being RC who are Independent Catholic, Ecumenical Catholic, dissident Catholic and a whole load of other categories including RR’s category.

In the US, we virtually never take anyone off the rolls you understand. Otherwise, we’d see what the studies tell us: There are 4 times as many people who’ve left as those who’ve come into the Church. In Europe and the UK, where taxes are levied against Catholics which involves some bookkeeping, you can see the picture more clearly. It’s not good.

*NOW, I’m NOT saying she’s right about her ideas; far, far from it. She’s a religious crackpot of the truest sort, one of many kinds of crackpots out there, in and out of the hospital on the hill. AND I’m also not saying that we need to write a prescription based on a poll. ABSOLUTELY, that is not my point. Bad rock music and tacky pizza parties WON’T HELP.*

*However, I AM SAYING that the Catholic Church had better get its crap together and stop the complacency. It had better get to what it has always stood for, and now. Catholics had better start teaching the Gospel or there’s not going to be anybody to preach it to. And they’d better stop fighting and acting socially like a bunch of snobs from Mars (on both sides and everywhere else) because it’s driving people off. It IS completely possible to believe everything the Catholic Church says, behave like an orthodox Roman Catholic and still act like a decent human being able to carry on a conversation and be friendly to others. It’s just not very common.*

The good Mercy Sister Kane appears to be a prime candidate for therapy. I would humbly suggest that she receive a referral to the therapist depicted on the recent TV ad for GEICO, the therapist portrayed by R. Lee Ermey! Or perhaps she should just be referred directly to Ermey—he should be able effectually to “‘splain it to her.”

Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer

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Food For Thought

“The legalization of the termination of pregnancy is none other than the authorization given to an adult, with the approval of an established law, to take the lives of children yet unborn and thus incapable of defending themselves. It is difficult to imagine a more unjust situation, and it is very difficult to speak of obsession in a matter such as this, where we are dealing with a fundamental imperative of every good conscience — the defense of the right to life of an innocent and defenseless human being.”

- St. John Paul II

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"One of the most dangerous errors is that civilization is automatically bound to increase and spread. The lesson of history is the opposite; civilization is a rarity, attained with difficulty and easily lost. The normal state of humanity is barbarism, just as the normal surface of the planet is salt water. Land looms large in our imagination and civilization in history books, only because sea and savagery are to us less interesting."

- C.S. Lewis

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“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

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